Archive for the 'Link Building' Category

How To: PDF Link Building

Creating Ebooks to attract new subscribers to your blog or newsletter is a practice that has been recommended by quite a few people and there are enough that do it.

However, there is another possible use for those pdf files full of tips, and that’s link building. For those that don’t know, PDF files get PR like any other page, and they’re able to pass link juice to websites linked from the document. Let me be clear, I’m not telling you to start making ebooks just to get links from PDF files and ebook directories. I’m saying that if you do make an ebook, consider these two options as well to get some extra links.

As you can see in the pic below, this particular file has a PR 7, so they do get link juice.

pdf-link-building

When it comes to link building there are two ways you can profit from these pdf files. You can register on ebook directories and get links to your site and (or) you can give away the ebook for free, uploading them to sites that host free ebooks.

Ebook Directories

Registering your ebook on these sites will get you links to the ebook page, so make the most of it. If you create an ebook named “How to make soap”, optimize that download page for that keyword, and start getting links to it. Now, you might or not get your keywords in the title of the url, depending on the site, but if you can place a description of the ebook and use your keywords in there, the link is still good, because Google sees it as a link from a page that quotes you on that particular subject. So it should still pass some authority when it comes to making soap.

Websites where you can leave a link to your download page (source - cleaned up those that weren’t working, modified with their current PR for others, added new directories and how old they are for most of them):

Looking for “ebook directory” in Google gives you 62,000 results, so there should be enough of them to promote your ebook and gather some links.

Uploading Ebooks

The second route, that you may or not want to pursue, is uploading your ebook to other websites, to get link juice from pdf files, which get it from sites where they’re uploaded. I have a small problem with this, as I don’t know what effect duplicate content has for pdf files. How much authority do you really get from ebooks that are going to be marked as duplicates since you upload them to many other sites. This one isn’t any different from links you get from article directories when you submit articles, with one important difference. Instead of links from spam sites that use free articles, you get them from legitimate websites that keep ebooks. So it should be better then link building with articles.

A few websites where you can upload your ebook (I’m sure there are many more if you look around):

I can’t seem to find these too easy, as they’re mixed with websites that don’t offer uploading, just a collection they already have. Anyone knows some more?

Other methods: upload them in torrents wherever you can (might get you extra visitors to the blog), give them away for free on webmaster forums (with the right to redistribute the ebook but without removing the links and credits from it).

Other resources:

I’ve mentioned PDF files in this article because most people release their ebooks in this format, but Google can also read doc, rtf, xls, ppt and other files, so if you can put links in them, you’d probably get link juice to your website. If Google can read its contents, it can get PR. I’ve seen doc, rtf and other types of files with PR.

This is new territory for me, so I’d appreciate any input if anyone has read more about link building with documents or maybe even tried it.

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Link Building Alexandru 07 Sep 2007 15 Comments

How To: Niche Link Building

With this article I’ll try and cover both popular and less used ways of building up your incoming links. Obviously, you can drop your link everywhere and you can gather a huge amount of links in a relatively short time. But, you can also do it the clever way and achieve the same goal with a smaller number of links, from sites that are actually relevant to your topic. That’s what it’s all about in the end, links from sites that are in the same niche as you.

As an example for this article I’ll show you how to do link building for an auto blog. Feel free to do the same with your own niche.

1. Niche Social Bookmarking Sites and Categories

Here, you can look for both Digg like sites about cars and you can look for social media sites that have Auto categories.

I’ll stop here because this is just to show you that there usually is a place for your social media link building. Just look around, use Google, and find them. Then submit your best stories to them. Another place to start for niche social media sites is this article: Top 25 Niche Social Media Sites.

2. Niche Forums

I don’t think that it’s really a surprise to anyone that there are forums for almost anything, like coffee forums, clock forums or even anything forums. Whatever your niche is, there is a very good chance you’ll be able to discuss it on some forum. Obviously, a link in your signature is an added bonus. New potential subscribers are another bonus, especially if you know what you’re talking about.

3. Niche Directories

I know that generally people consider that directories don’t provide as much value these days, but in my opinion niche directories still have something to say. You might not find a directory for every possible niche, but there are quite a few that have them.

Just a Google search of auto directory or car directory will give you plenty of examples. Same goes with many other niches.

4. Niche DoFollow Blogs

DoFollow Blogs - usually blogs have url’s in comments with nofollow attached. There are some bloggers, those part of the DoFollow movement that remove the nofollow tag and give some link love to those that comment on their blogs.

ifollowwhite You see the tagline of this blog in the upper right corner? The “some ethics attached” part. This is what I’m talking about. Don’t screw over other bloggers. Don’t spam bloggers that are part of the DoFollow movement. When I do post comments on DoFollow blogs I do it because I’m a subscriber and I have something to say. I don’t comment just for the sake of commenting. If the post doesn’t interest me I don’t say anything. If it does, I’ll say what I got to say but I’ll also try to make it a good comment. No “Nice article!” or other 2-3 words comments. The list of over 200 Dofollow blogs can be found at Courtney Tuttle. There are a number of niches that are represented there.

5. Make a Tool/Quizz for your niche

blog-worth You’ve probably seen them around by now. An example is the “My blog is worth $xxxx” code, which people put in their sidebars. That one has a link back to the blog that released it. The same goes for the others as well. You do need to know some programming or know someone who does, but if you have a good idea and you promote the tool well, it can do wonders.

A quick idea of a tool for an auto blog: a tool that will let people insert the make, model and year of their car, then offer them a code that they can insert in their signature in forums, and it will show a gif image with some of the statistics of the car and maybe the value of the car, updated from the Kelley Blue Book. Can be used both by bloggers and any car enthusiast that wants to show off his car in forums. Obviously, that gif is a link to your own auto site/blog.

6. Create a WordPress Theme or a Forum Theme for your niche

A WordPress theme created for your niche will most probably be used by a small number of bloggers, but when it does they will be relevant links from the credit link you leave in the footer. One other thing you can do to promote it, you can contact bloggers writing about cars and tell them that you’ve made a free WordPress theme that will go better with the subject of his blog then the current one. Of course, contact bloggers that are not using car themes. Same goes for any other niche where you’re not writing alone.

car-themeA few examples of car themes for WordPress at WP Themes Free

How to create a WordPress theme: one written by Max, and another by WP Designer

If you know how to code, don’t limit yourself to just WordPress though. You could find a bigger forum in your niche for example and offer them a free custom VBulletin theme in exchange of leaving the footer links intact and pointing to your website/blog. Places with user generated content can be a good choice for this, because while bloggers write maybe a few hundred articles per year, forums tend to gather tenths of thousands of pages written by users.

7. Guest Post on Blogs In Your Niche

Look for blogs in your niche or related. You might want to skip trying to write for big network blogs (Jalopnik, Engadget, etc) and look for blogs maintained by enthusiasts. Guest blogging has already been discussed to death by others so I’m not going to waste your time by saying the same things. Just do good posts and put that link to your blog.

8. Blog Carnivals

blog-carnival Another topic discussed to death, but still valuable when it comes to gaining links from others in your niche. Head on to Blog Carnival and look for something that suites your subject.

Conclusions

These are not the only ways to do it. There are plenty of ways and chances are you already know them, but don’t use them (why??). Linkbait and long useful lists are just two that I didn’t mention here because others have exhausted the subject already.

Syndicated articles is an example that I don’t like because I don’t really want links from blogs or sites that don’t write their own posts. They will be marked as supplemental probably and they’re not that useful.

So, got a niche blog/site? Start promoting it. As you saw, it’s as easy as submitting articles to niche social media sites or writing on niche forums.

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Link Building Alexandru 21 Aug 2007 6 Comments

Blogging through Digg - Boost Your PR series, Day 3

Some of you may know that Digg has a feature for its users, called Blog this, that you can find at every article submitted. By setting up your blog address, username and password in your profile, it allows you to post on your blog from Digg. You get in return a link to your main page, on the Who dugg or blogged this? page of the article you’re blogging on.

Being linked directly from the article page, which will get a number of links from bloggers, the page where your link shows up usually ends up being a PR2-4, depending on how popular the article is.

sshot-1sshot-2  

The problem with using this however, is that it only allows you to write text, without any formatting or images in the post. My advice would be, if you’re going to use this feature to blog about posts from Digg, prepare a fully formatted copy somewhere else, post from Digg the full text, then edit the post immediately, attaching the right category and pasting the fully formatted content with images included.

The con here is that I’m not sure what version of the post will the subscribers get. The text only one, or the fully formatted version that you edit, paste and save in just 10 seconds. For those that offer partial feeds, this shouldn’t be an issue.

The advantage is a PR 2-4 link from a Digg article related to your blog (I wouldn’t recommend blogging about Nintendo on a cooking blog).

The previous Boost Your PR tips: Day 1 and Day 2.

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Link Building Alexandru 10 Aug 2007 2 Comments

Guest Post At The End Of The Month - Boost Your PR series, Day 2

Yesterday I added to my feed reader another blog about making money online, Blogging Fingers, found through a mention on Cash Quests. There are more then one posts that are worth reading there, but one in particular caught my attention, his Tip no.2 on increasing PageRank.

He’s right of course, and this is a nice bonus when you do guest posts. A link from a high PR archive page never hurt anyone :).

I’ll add something to that though. To have your guest post and your link among the last 10 articles you will probably need to submit those guest posts in the last week of the month. Otherwise, you will have your links on the second or third page for that month, which will probably be of lower PR. It actually depends on how often that blogger writes.

This is the second post of the Boost Your PR series. You can find the tip from the first day in the article Translate Plugins and Themes.

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Link Building Alexandru 08 Aug 2007 Leave a Comment

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